Vegetarian Easter Brunch

This year was an early Easter, why it was not even April yet. The flowers had not started blooming and nor had the trees. An Easter egg hunt in the garden was out of the question since our garden looks like a pig sty, literally! Its just missing the pigs (although when my kids go out to play .... ). We invited all my husbands siblings to come over this Easter so that they could check out our new house (or so we could show it off maybe, or maybe just force ourselves to finish the details!!). So we had an Easter brunch. I don't know why but we always have brunch for Easter.

Ham and lamb are of course not on the menu!!

This is what we had:

Hot Cross Buns:

Going fast, as usual! I make these delicious spicy buns once a year on account of their time consuming preparation. Let to rise around 4 times they are super light and fluffy but you need a whole day to make them. Of course you could stress yourself out (like I did this year) and try making them early morning! If you do plan at least 4 hours (needless to say brunch was more like lunch!). Easter would not be the same without them.

Roasted New Potatoes with Rosemary

Super easy and gone before you can get a second serving! Scrub the spuds, put them in a oven proof dish, drizzle with olive oil and add salt, pepper and fresh rosemary to taste. Mix everything up and bake at 180 C in a fan oven for ... oh lets say ... until they are tender (depends on the size of the spuds, mine took around 50 minutes). Give them a turn after around 20 minutes to make sure everything is coated with oil.

Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Mushroom Risotto

My very own recipe! Inspired by my Georgian friend who stuffed tomatoes for us the week before. They look oh so pretty. I made a mushroom risotto to fill them with using 3 different types of mushroom, portobello, brown button and oyster. Then I topped them with Parmesan cheese. I loved them but I couldn't get my kids to touch them. "Mum what's inside the tomatoes?"; "mushroom risotto"; "Yuck!". At some point I will post my mushroom risotto recipe but it might take a while because I've given up cooking it since this is the usual response. See "Risotto and My Kids"

Mini Cheese Omelets

Made in my pancake pans filled simply with grated Swiss Emmental. For the batter whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of milk (you can use soy or lactose free) and a pinch of salt to make one small omelet. Rub the frying pan with oil, pour in the batter and then sprinkle it with cheese. To make sure that the top of the omelet also cooks put a lid on the frying pan. When it is almost cooked fold the omelet in half pressing down to make it stick together. If you wait until the omelet is completely cooked it won't stick together. Put the lid on again if necessary and cook until done. Simple and delicious!! And yes, my kids ate them :)

Boiled Eggs

Easter would not be Easter with out these. I did have more, I didn't have everyone on a diet, but they got eaten before I was done with the rest of the food. As I said, the hot cross buns took a bit longer and we had lunch instead of brunch!

Boiled eggs are simple to make but here is how to make them so that the egg yellow does not turn that dark grey colour.

Put the eggs in a pan with cold water. The water level should be one inch higher than the eggs. Put the pot to boil without a lid. Once the water boils remove the pan from the heat, cover with a lid and let it sit for 6 - 8 minutes. Then wash the eggs under cold water to stop them from cooking. You will find that there is no grey colouring :) 

Have fun next Easter and try to make it a vegetarian one!

Half an Hour Crows Nest

My mother always used to make us this when we were at home. I always loved it especially when she fried the bread extra crispy. Now my kids love it too. They can't get used to the name because its just too out there to be comparing a yummy breakfast dish to a crows nest! You can really cook it in less than half an hour depending on how much you are making. In this particular case I made it with a day old baguette that had to be gotten rid of. I happened to make it for lunch because I needed something quick and my kids don't eat much for lunch right now.

Preparation time: 30 min. Serves 4 (as a side dish)

Ingredients:

8	Eggs
8 cups	Cubed, stale (at least not fresh!) bread
1/3 cup	Milk
1/4 cup	Oil
	Salt and pepper

Method:

Put a large skillet or frying pan on the stove on high heat. For best results use a cast iron pan. If you use any non- non-stick pan you will be fine. With a non-stick you will not get the bread to be as golden brown and crunchy and you also run the risk of ruining the surface of your non-stick pan. Eggs tend to have this nasty way of ruining the non-stick surface.

While your pan is heating up cube, or dice, your bread. Around 1.5 cm cubes are good.

Once the pan is hot add the oil and then the diced bread. Toss them in the oil so that all the pieces of bread get some oil. If the bread does not have oil on it it won't become crunchy and golden brown. You can always add some more oil if it doesn't seem to be enough. I think I might have added a bit more (my memory says a quarter cup more but its not very reliable!). Then fry them until golden brown. They need to be stirred every now and then to make sure they brown evenly and depending on your cooker and pan you might need to reduce the heat to medium to prevent it from burning.

While the bread is frying beat the eggs together with the milk, salt and pepper.

Once the bread is golden brown pour the egg mixture over the bread and mix until all the egg is cooked. Remove from the heat and serve immediately. Definitely best hot!

As you can see, not all of my bread was golden brown. It doesn't have to be all golden brown because that would take you forever and a whole heap of oil!
And here is the finished product which was devoured within a few minutes!!

Oh and I tried sprinkling it with Parmesan cheese (that's the white stuff you see on the side) but the kids did not like it although they do love Parmesan cheese and find it an absolute treat to be able to eat it by itself.

Hummus - Quick, Easy, Delicious!

I'm back!!!

I have figured out how to work my new phone and things have settled down enough that I actually have time to cook peacefully. Only when cooking peacefully does one have time to take pictures.

Today I wasn't really "cooking", since I never even put the cooker on.

My kids absolutely love hummus and given that it is nutritious and delicious I wonder why I don't make it more often. Whenever there is a pot luck and I don't have time to bake anything I grab for a large can of chickpeas. Its always a hit. Today I needed something quick for lunch so we picked up some Lebanese flat bread and made some hummus.

Just as a warning, don't omit the tahini (don't buy the cheapest either) because without tahini it does not taste half as good.

Preparation time: 15 min. Serves 4 (as an appetizer) 

Ingredients:

1	14 oz can chickpeas (or 225 g dried chickpeas soaked in cold water overnight
1	Lemon, juice of
75 ml (1/4 cup)	Tahini paste
2 tbsp.	Olive oil
1 clove	Garlic
	Salt and pepper
1 pinch	Chilli powder

Method:

I almost always use canned chickpeas. They are easy to come by and make this recipe really easy to make.

One mistake that I always make when putting my hummus together is that I throw away the water in the chickpea can. DO NOT throw away the water!! You of course have to drain the water because you don't want that much but you do need a little. 

Once you have drained the chickpeas put them into a food processor. Cut the clove or garlic into about 3 and put it in together with the olive oil, tahini and lemon juice. Be careful with the lemon juice. If you don't like things too sour put in the juice of half the lemon first. You can always add more juice later. Add some salt and pepper to taste (you can also add more later).

Then whizz it in your food processor until it is nice and smooth. If it doesn't get smooth it's probably because there is not enough liquid in the mixture. Taste the hummus and see if it needs more lemon juice. Add as much as you like and then whizz it again. If it is still too dry add the liquid that you drained from the can a teaspoon at a time. Whizz it each time and check the consistency. I like mine not so dry because then the hummus is smoother. So in this batch I ended up putting almost all the lemon and a tablespoon of chickpea liquid. Once you have a smooth paste you are done. 

To serve it place it in a bowl and flatten the top with a spoon making a swirl in the hummus. Drizzle a bit of olive oil onto the swirl and then sprinkle with a pinch of chilli powder. You can also use paprika or any other hot powder. 

Serve as an appetizer or snack with flat bread or vegetable sticks.

For a chef friendly version click here. 

Busy, busy with a new house!

As you probably have noticed there have been no posts here for a long time. The reason for this break is that we were moving house. Once we moved things settled down a bit but then the camera on my phone broke AND we didn't have an internet connection. Since we are now hooked up to the rest of the world I was able to send in my phone for repairs. Which means I still don't have a camera to use when I am cooking or crafting. Add on to the despair, I thought that my phone automatically sent all the photos to the cloud, but it turns out that it doesn't (or hasn't). So I can't even write up some of the stuff that I cooked before Christmas.

Hopefully I will be fully functional by next week. Wish me luck :)

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

You can probably find this recipe everywhere on the internet. I believe I found it somewhere there too. But that was way back when, when you didn't write down where a recipe came from. I want to save the recipe here so that I can find it in future. I really love red velvet cake. It's easy to make and very tasty. There is just one draw back and that is that I don't like adding the 1/4 cup of red colouring. I usually just add water to compensate. But today I had some left over red colouring and I figured I'd just throw it into the mixture. It really didn't do any thing to the taste but it does to the reaction of those eating it. A regular chocolate cake does not get the bang that a red velvet cake does.

The cake is stable so you can cut it into shape and it is moist and stays moist even if it is left out for a while. This is especially important if you are making a large character cake. I was making one a few weeks ago for my daughters farewell party at elementary school. I was kind of obliged to because she came home and told me "Mum, I told my teacher that you would make a cake in the form of our class mascot for our farewell party." I didn't know what to say except, "Next time please ask first"! But I am a sucker for such things so this is what I ended up creating:

Preparation time: 25 min. + 60 min. baking; Serves 12

Ingredients:

8 oz	Butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups	Sugar
2	Eggs
1/4 cup	Red colouring, beetroot juice or water
2 tbsp.	Cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups	Wheat flour (cake flour)
1 tsp.	Salt
1 tsp.	Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, natron)
1 cup	Butter milk (or regular milk)
1 tbsp.	White wine vinegar

Method:

I made this cake in a 9 inch spring form but I also use the batter to make cup cakes (makes about 24) or in a 1/4 sheet pan. Before I do anything else I prepare my pan. I don't like to leave my batter sitting. They say that the leavening ingredients start to react and thus you might not get the cake to rise if you let it stand. I've only once let some batter stand and I didn't notice much of a difference even though it stood for 20 minutes. But I won't chance it, except in an emergency, because my mother taught me this and she knows a thing or two about baking cakes. You can either lightly butter your pan and then sprinkle flour on it or just line it with parchment paper. Either works fine.

It was really warm today so my room temperature butter was very soft. I like it this way but usually don't have the patience to wait until it is soft enough. The butter and the sugar went into the mixer and it was beaten until it was light and fluffy. My daughter who was helping me thought it looked pretty cool when it was light and fluffy!

 Then I added both eggs in and beat the mixture until well combined. At this point I put my fan oven on at 160 Celsius (180 C conventional / 360 F) so that it would be hot enough by the time I was finished. 

The cocoa powder should then be mixed together with the water/colouring to make a paste. I think the reason for this is because the cocoa releases it's flavour when mixed with water (unlike when mixed with milk) at least this is what I was told by a person in the Valrhona shop in Brussels.

This mixture is added to the batter and mixed in. Looks kind of pretty.

Next I add the salt and the baking soda and mix. Then goes in 1 cup of flour, mix until combined. Then 1/2 cup of butter milk (or regular milk), mix until combined. Then 3/4 cup of flour, mix until combined. The rest of the butter milk, mix until combined. And finally the rest of the flour (3/4 cup), mix until combined. 

At the very end stir in the vinegar and then pour into the form.

Bake for 1 hour, or until an knife comes out clean.

With the clean knife thing, just in case, I usually lightly touch the top of my cake first, if it is wobbly then I leave it in for another 10 minutes. If it is wobbly and you stick in the knife you run the risk of deflating your cake. I've done this before and it is not nice. Once the cake doesn't wobble like jelly then you can try out with the knife. I poke a 9 inch cake in a couple of places. My first prick is closer to the edge of the cake. If this is done then I move closer to the middle, with my third and final poke being right down the center. I'm terribly paranoid about my cake sinking in the middle. Once the cake is done take it out and let it sit for about 10 minutes in the pan. Then turn it out onto a wire rack and allow to cool.

We'll enjoy decorating this later on!

And we decorated it... very quickly with cream cheese frosting (1:1:2 butter:cream cheese: icing sugar) and some sprinkles.

Potato Gratin, Easy-peasy and Delicious

I don't make enough of this stuff! It is so easy to make and every one just wolfs it down. So much so that this time I made two dishes of it so we could get a second meal out of it.

Preparation time: 25 min. Serves 4 

Ingredients:

6	Potatoes
200 ml	Cream (or soy substitute)
	Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp.	Finely chopped fresh herbs
1 cup	Grated cheese

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 C, 400 F or 180 C if you have a fan oven.

Peel and slice the potatoes. The thinner you slice the potatoes the quicker it will cook and the better it will taste.

Arrange the potatoes in a heat proof flan dish.

Pour over the cream ( I use half whipping cream and half soy based cream in order to lower the fat content). Make sure that your potatoes are covered with liquid. They should not be swimming in it, but every potato should have something on it, else they will not cook properly.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and the herbs. For herbs I used thyme and rosemary because I still have them in a pot left over from some other recipes, but you could use anything or nothing at all! Finally sprinkle with cheese.

Stick it in the oven and once you can stick a fork through the potatoes and the cheese is melted take it out and enjoy. I can't tell you how long it will take since I don't know how fat your slices will be or how large your potatoes were. Mine took about 20 - 30 minutes. Just wait for the cheese to melt, the cream to bubble and then try pricking it with your fork.

Sorry, it was consumed to fast to be able to take pictures of the final product!!

We enjoyed our potato gratin with vegetarian schnitzel and steamed beans. But they can be eaten with anything.

Cup Cakes - Simple and Delicious

My nephew is turning 1 and my sister-in-law asked me for a cake recipe. I told her where to find the recipe that I use and then turned to my blog to find out where I wrote down the European measurements. Turned out... I never did. How could I not have I've given this link to many people here in Europe. The cupcakes turn out absolutely wonderful and they are super easy to make.
So here is the link to the recipe I use:

http://www.glorioustreats.com/2011/07/perfect-vanilla-cupcakes-recipe.html

And here is the recipe with some European measurements:

Preparation time: 45 min. Makes 15 - 16 cupcakes/ twice the recipe makes a 9" round

Ingredients:

150 g	Flour
1 1/4 tsp.	Baking Powder
1/2 tsp.	Baking Soda (Natron/Sodium Bicarbonate)
1/2 tsp.	Salt
2	Eggs (large)
150 g	Sugar
1 1/2 tsp.	Vanilla (optional)
120 ml	Oil (sunflower, canola, etc.)
120 ml	Butter milk (or substitute with regular or soya milk)

Method:

Well please forgive me but let me just forward you again to the original website. That person spent so much time putting this recipe together she should at least get a few more hits!!

http://www.glorioustreats.com/2011/07/perfect-vanilla-cupcakes-recipe.html

Just waiting to be decorated

And then there were minions!

For the soccer fan

Fun with left over icing!

American Pancakes

My I think it is time for a new post, don't you? Some thing yummy for the cold weather that has just hit us. Last Wednesday I was sitting on the balcony enjoying a cup of tea and a cookie and this Wednesday I pulled out all my winter gear to beat the 0 degree temperatures.

Pancakes... the American kind. Piles and piles of hot pancakes along side some yummy toppings. Nothing to beat our unhealthy favourite of Nutella, bananas and whipped cream!

Preparation time: 25 min. Serves 2 (aprox. 8 pancakes)

Ingredients:

1	Egg
1 cup	Milk
1 oz (30 g)	Butter, melted
1 cup (150 g)	Flour
1 tbsp.	Sugar
1 tbsp.	Baking powder
1/2 tsp.	Salt

Method:

Pancakes are easy to make and there are all kinds of variations. Every country seems to have their own. I never used to eat American pancakes until I made them myself. I should credit this recipe to someone but I don't know where I pulled it from. Most definitely off the internet! If this is yours let me know.

The first thing you need to do is melt the butter. I melt mine in the microwave a bit at a time. The main point is that the butter does not get too hot. If it does it will cook the egg and the batter will not be smooth. So I cut it up into pieces and put it in for 30 seconds. I then take it out and stir it (if it is possible) and then put it back in for another 20 seconds. I repeat this until I have some liquid butter.

Now you can do this the easy way and take all your ingredients and put them in a food processor or a liquidizer. You could also use an electric mixer. But this time I decided to do it the old fashioned way with a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon. So if you are glutton for punishment or you just enjoy yourself in the kitchen read on. Otherwise mix everything together and jump to *.

Add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and make a well in the middle into which you can pour the melted butter. The quantities in the pictures might seem a bit more than in the recipe. This is because I have to make twice the recipe to feed my family of four.

Then add in the eggs.

Now you have to do the age old thing and work in the fluid stuff into the flour by starting in the middle and mixing the flour slowly in with your wooden spoon. It looks something like this:

As you see one can't mix everything in because the batter gets to thick. At this point you have to start to slowly add the milk. Add a bit at a time and slowly incorporate all the flour. Once you have a sticky mess give it a good mix with the wooden spoon to get rid of any lumps. 

Then work on incorporating the rest of the milk. If you end up getting some lumps give it a beat with a hand whisk.

* And now it is ready to fry. 

I have special pancake pans. They are really cheap non-stick pans that I bought from Ikea a long time ago. Totally worth it because I can make 3 pancakes simultaneously.

Although the pans are non-stick they still need a bit of oil. I apply this to the pan using a paper towel. I put a bit of oil in a saucer, take 1/2 a sheet of paper kitchen towel, fold the towel about 3 times into half, dip it in the oil and then rub it on the pan. My pans I heat on medium heat but have to adjust them up and down depending on the size of the burner and the strength. 

Take about one soup ladel of mixture and put it into the frying pan (once the frying pan is hot of course) and swish it around until the mixture covers the bottom of the pan. Make sure your pan is not on the heat while you swish it around else you won't get very thin pancakes. Of course if you want real thick pancakes you should probably put more batter than one soup ladel full. Then put your pancake on the heat and let it sit. I can't tell you how long to wait before you flip it because it is always different but you can tell from what the pancake looks like.

Look at the pancake in the picture below. You can see that it has bubbles on it that are popped. On the left hand side the pancake is "dried out" and on the right hand side, although it is shiny, the batter is set. This is a perfect time to flip your pancake. It should come off really easily. Use a spatula to flip it or do it the old fashioned way by throwing it in the air. Throwing it in the air and catching it gains a lot of respect from your kids. It's like in the pancake fairy tale!

Once you have flipped the pancake it does not take long to cook. Remember the top side was almost already cooked. Probably it takes about 30 seconds but you can peek underneath with the help of your spatula to see if it is the done. No need for it to brown on the bottom all you want is for it to be cooked through.

Pile them up high on a plate. This will also help keep the first ones warm while you are making the rest.

And then serve them with what ever tickles your fancy. Jam, honey, marmite (yes, thats my little ones favourite!), fruit or the more traditional maple syrup and whipped butter. Oh and I should not forget my mothers favourite pancake topping ... sugar with lemon juice.

Before I had a smart phone I hosted brunch for some friends and made these pancakes but much smaller. They looked really cool stacked up. Shame I don't have a picture.

Mac and Cheese

I just found this draft sitting around. No idea why it didn't get posted!!

So I've been working now for a couple of weeks. It is a lot of fun teaching the little ones. Quite a jump to go from adult education to 3rd grade!! But at least there is no stressing over the content or the questions that come from the audience :) Cooking has been a bit tough but I've managed to put a hot meal on the table almost every day even though I only get home at 5 pm. Of course I've gone through all my half hour meals and they certainly came in handy when my husband had to cook one evening (afternoon staff meeting :( ).

What with having to cook quickly I haven't had any time to take pictures of what I've been cooking and of course without pictures what is the use of a blog! But I do have some reserve so now that I have the time I can post them. And so here is one of my kids favorites "Mac and Cheese". When we lived in the USA I just opened up a box, boiled the macaroni, poured in the powder, milk and butter and voila I was ready to go. Here in Germany you cannot buy Mac and Cheese in a box. I'm guessing there is a good reason for this but I can't figure out what. I think it has something to do with the cheese powder because we can't get goldfish either. It makes me wonder what I was eating back in the USA. So now we make it from scratch.

Hmmm... I remember back when I was a kid I visited a friends house and we had mac and cheese for dinner. It was the most delicious thing ever. I wish I'd been wise enough to get the recipe but I was only 8 years old.

So here is my recipe. Hopefully it creates happy memories for you too.

Preparation time: 45 minutes; Serves: 6

Ingredients:

10 oz/250 g	Short-cut macaroni
1.5 oz/45 g	Butter
4 tbsp./35 g	Flour
1 pint/500 ml	Milk
1/8 tsp.	Freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp.	Salt
6 oz/175 g	Tofu
5 oz/140 g	Frozen peas
6 oz/175 g	Cheddar cheese, grated
2 tbsp.	Bread crumbs

Method:

First of all this is not your traditional mac and cheese. For additional nutrition it has tofu and peas in it. My kids love the peas but you can feel free to omit them. The tofu can be omitted too.

What makes mac and cheese mac and cheese is the creamy cheese sauce so this is where all my effort goes. Before I start with the sauce I put a large pot of water on the cooker on high heat. This is to boil the macaroni. Since this takes forever I make the sauce in the mean time. My fan oven also takes a while to get heated up so I pop it on at 180 C (200 C conventional, 400 F).

In a small saucepan over medium heat I melt the butter. Be careful not to burn it. If you do happen to burn it, toss it and start from the beginning again. Once it is melted I add the flour and stir it until it is cooked, about 2 minutes. 

Then I add the milk. There are various ways to do this and it doesn't really matter which one you use as long as you aren't left with any lumps. I do it the way my mum taught me to and that is to gradually add the milk stirring all the time. So I add my first little bit, and the milk sizzles as it hits the flour/butter mixture. I stir it vigorously until it is all incorporated. Then I add a little bit more and stir again. I keep doing this until I have a mixture which is liquidy enough that there is no way lumps are going to form. Then I dump in the rest of the milk, stir and bring the sauce to the boil stirring all the time. Your sauce should get thicker and look like this:

Remove it from the heat.

Don't lose hope if your sauce does get lumpy. You can save it by using a stick mixer or a food processor. You can also pass it through a sieve. (Oh my, I remember doing that when I was a child and we didn't have any fancy gadgets!)

Now the worst is over, not much can go wrong from here out. My water is boiling so I carefully dump in my macaroni and let it cook as per the packets instructions. I always let the water re-boil after adding the macaroni and then start the timer.

Back to my sauce. I grate the cheese and crumble the tofu.

And then put 2/3 of the cheese into the sauce and stir it well. Then I add everything except the breadcrumbs and mix it all together.

Now for a bit of down time while I'm waiting for the pasta to finish boiling. Hmmm the options are endless, either a nice cup of tea or clean up the mess. Unfortunately I have to go for cleaning up the mess :(

Once the pasta is done it is well drained, rinsed under cold water and drained again. Then it goes straight into the sauce and everything is mixed together.

I then take out my favourite baking dish, which is rather large, and pour everything into it. At the end I mix the remaining cheese with the bread crumbs and sprinkle them on top.

This baby gets popped in the oven and baked until it is golden brown about 20 minutes.
And will you look at that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Probably because it was devoured before I could pull my phone out!!